Upshur County, West Virginia Biography of JOHN W. FARNSWORTH This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 279 Upshur County JOHN W. FARNSWORTH has been in the lumber industry ever since leaving college, and is now officially identified with two of the prominent lumber manufacturing enter- prises of Weston, one being the Acme Lumber & Manu- facturing Company and the other the Richwood Lumber Company, of which he is president. Mr. Farnsworth was born at Buckhannon in Upshur County, West Virginia, September 24, 1876, son of Dr. Thomas G. and Mary J. (Marshall) Farnsworth. His grand- father came from England to the United States, first settled on Staten Island, New York, and later in Buck- hannon, where he became a man of considerable wealth and prominence. Dr. Thomas G. Farnsworth was born at Buckhannon, and died there at the close of a long and use- ful life of eighty-five years on February 11, 1921.. He was educated in private schools, graduated in, medicine from Jefferson Medical College, and for many years had a busy practice that taxed his time and energies. He was also active in polities and the affairs of good citizen- ship, served as a member of the State Legislature in 1871- 72, for eight terms filled the office of mayor of Buck- hannon and was also a member of the City Council. He was a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was a past master of Franklin Lodge of Masons. Of his eleven children six are living. John W. Farnsworth spent the first twenty-one years of his life at Buckhannon. He graduated from high school and also attended Wesleyan College there. Through an experience of a quarter of a century he has mastered the details of lumber manufacture, and the two companies named above owe much of their prosperity and high stand- ing to his capable executive management. Mr. Farnsworth married Mary A. Hammer on April 25; 1899. They have three children: Ernest S., born in May, 1900. now living at Los Angeles, California; Mary M., born October 13, 1901, who is a graduate of high school; and Edna H., born February 1, 1904. Mr. Farnsworth is a trustee and secretary of the Official Board of the Methodist Protestant Church at Weston. He is affiliated with Weston Lodge, No. 10, A. F. and A. M., Bigelow Chapter, No. 4, R. A. M., St. John Commandery, No. 8, K. T. He has interested himself in the success of many campaigns of the republican party, and was at one time chairman of the Republican Executive Committee for Lewis County. He is a member of the City Council, and belongs to the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce.